Second question: I recently spoke with a guy working right now on analyzing off-the-shelf usb-sticks from all kinds of vendors. He called it "night-shift malware" and his advice was to fdisk the hell out of all devices before even considering to use it. This might be old news(?), but my point is that it's not only free electronics you should worry about. Of course free electronics contains another security aspect as these might be used to attack you specifically while night-shift stuff is directed at "as many as possible".

Last article: This is why you should put tape over your smartphone cam. Imagine what criminals (ex. burglars) could do using such technology. Correct me if I'm wrong here -- but I find it surprising that most people care to put tape over their laptop cam but not on their smartphone, why is this?

Laptops often have a good view of the room.

Cell phones often have a good view of the inside of a pocket.

Nitpicker's corner: Your usage patterns may differ.

You can probably take a look at some AT commands to see what all is possible: http://www.etsi.org/deliver/etsi_gts/07/0707/05.00.00_60/gsm...

As far as how easy, you just need the right hardware and software.